Why aren’t lasers used in Star Trek? Originally, that was the plan, but creator Gene Roddenberry had concerns. He felt the word “laser” lacked futuristic weight and opted to invent a new technology that opened up more creative freedom for the writers.

When we imagine the weapons of the future, we often picture sleek laser pistols and rifles. But that’s not what you’ll find in the world of Star Trek. While lasers technically exist in this universe, they’re considered outdated relics. Starfleet and most major factions in the Alpha Quadrant rely instead on phasers—short for Phased Energy Rectification. So why the switch?

Fear of hearing: “Lasers don’t work like that.”

As GameStar points out, the early plans for the show did include lasers. You can even see them used in the scrapped pilot episode. In the 1960s, laser technology was quickly becoming real, and that’s precisely what made Gene Roddenberry uncomfortable. In an old interview, he explained: “We didn’t want people coming to us three years later saying, ‘Lasers can’t do that.’”

Roddenberry was wary of tying a core piece of his fictional universe—on par with warp drives and teleporters—to a real-world technology that might soon become outdated or, worse, scientifically inaccurate. So he met the challenge head-on by inventing something new: phasers.

According to The Making of Star Trek (via Memory Alpha), a book published in 1968 and co-written by Roddenberry and Stephen E. Whitfield, phasers are conceptually similar to lasers, but their beams operate on a pulsed frequency that can interact with molecular wave patterns. This frequency “phasing” is what inspired the name “phaser.”

To the audience, the term sounded more futuristic than “laser,” and it gave writers a versatile tool that could be dialed up or down in intensity, from stunning a target to vaporizing it completely. That flexibility let the Enterprise crew handle hostile situations non-lethally or use phasers for exploration. If needed, they could even sweep large areas with energy bursts to take out multiple enemies at once.

Laser weapons look primitive in Star Trek

That’s not to say lasers don’t exist in Star Trek at all. Humans must have used them for a time before phasers became standard (as explored in Star Trek: Enterprise). But by the 24th century, during Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s era, they’re seen as crude. In the episode The Outrageous Okona (Season 2, Episode 4 of The Next Generation), Patrick Stewart’s character quips: “Lasers can’t even penetrate our navigational shields.”

The joke didn’t last long, though. In the episode Q Who, the Borg fire a “type of laser beam” that successfully pierces the ship’s defenses, causing panic among the crew.

So remember: set your phasers to stun, and enjoy the weekend. Star Trek is set to return to SkyShowtime later this summer.

Source: 3djuegos